Marina Abramović @Stedelijk Museum
_about
Marina Abramović's retrospective exhibition is taking place between Mar 16 and Jul 14, 2024. I visited it on the 30th of March and took part in two performances - "Counting The Rice" and "Imponderabilia".
The visitors were invited to restrain themselves from taking photos, thus for this one I have only one photo, but will share some highlights and sketches I've made to document some works for myself.
Over 60 key works spanning five decades trace the development of the prolific oeuvre of the pioneer of performance art: from her early work, created in former Yugoslavia and in Amsterdam, to the pioneering performances with her partner Ulay and works from her solo practice, in which she is still active today. The survey features photos, videos, sculptures, and live reperformances of four iconic performances that will be staged in the Netherlands for the first time: Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful (1975), Imponderabilia (work with Ulay) (1977), Luminosity (1997) and The House with the Ocean View (2002). As a visitor, you are invited to take part in two performances: Work Relation (work with Ulay) (1978) and Counting the Rice from the Abramović Method.
_highlights
_the rather large exhibition was divided into several themes that were significant in Abramović's practice
_i spent two hours at the exhibition, without realising how long it took - it was nicely curated and even though there were many people, it was not too crowded
_i find it rather rare to be able to visit such kind of interdisciplinary exhibition - a lot of works, being performances, were documented and presented here; was really useful to see various ways of presenting such a versatile work 🖤
_some of the themes in her work that were highlighted: body (basically her main medium); death (she says "When death comes knocking at my door, I want to enter into that final experience consciously, free from fear, bitterness and anger. The experience of transition, of consciously passing from one state into another, is important to me."); her origin and the Balkan identity (she definitely grew up in problematic historical times and in a family of partisans, turned national heroes in Serbia); spirituality (peculiar mix with the standing towards it during the times she lived in); harm (especially in her early works); and her relationship with Ulay.
_extending the life of a performance through photographic and video documentation has been a core element of Abramovic's practice
_Counting The Rice
_a preparation exercise for her performances, Abramović uses this tool to focus
_everyone has different ways to count it
_how it works: before you start you need to decide how much you want to count and then don't give up until you're done
_for this activity, i didn't count anything; i took a pile of mixed rice and lentils and started to divide them with the pencil; instead of writing counted numbers, i decided to map the movement of the lentils away from the pile with the pencil.
_The Artist Is Present
_the presentation of this performance was nicely curated: on two opposite walls there were the screens - on one side Abramović's face looking at the person on the opposite side; thus, you could see how she and person who was sitting in front of her were looking at each other during the performance.
_Imponderabilia
_it was first performed in 1977 by Abramović and Ulay (Bologna, Italy)
_for this exhibition, it was performed by two people trained for it - they were standing without moving for the whole time i was at the exhibition
_Imponderabilia is two performers, both completely nude, standing in a doorway. The visitors must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face
_during my brief observations, most of the visitors passing were facing the woman; i also did that, but i think it was like that because it was easier to pass by if starting with my left foot (better control of my movement this way)
_it was the only work at the exhibition that i felt like taking part in the performance; and it was also the most challenging, of course.
_links
▶▶exhibition webpage
▶▶the artist's page on wikipedia
▶▶Open Studio | Marina Abramović: Counting the Rice
▶▶The Artist Is Present